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Ofcom study highlights current average broadband speeds
Tuesday 28th July 2009, by Daniel King
A new study has been published that could convince some broadband customers that the time might be right to switch their internet services provider.
The Ofcom report looked at web connection speeds across the UK and compared them to the levels that a number of companies were advertising - concluding that in most cases, people were not getting what they thought they were paying for.
According to the telecommunications industry watchdog, fixed-line broadband packages are now something that the general public may be happy to shop around for - as more emphasis is placed on being able to access "bandwidth-hungry applications" - such as live video and audio downloads.
Looking at the individual providers across Britain, it was noted that a number of the firms advertising up to 8 Mb services were in fact giving their subscribers less than half this figure.
AOL users signed up to such a package could expect speeds of between 3.3 and 3.9 Mb, while BT customers were closer to 3.8 and 4.2 Mb. O2's performance was estimated to be around the 4.1 and 5.1 Mb mark and consumers with Orange were getting rates of between 3.8 and 4.5 Mb.
Plusnet subscribers who had signed up for up to 8 Mb services were found to be getting closer at 3.8 to 4.9 Mb and Sky users were clocked with speeds of between 4.0 and 4.7 Mb. TalkTalk fared a little better at around 3.8 to 4.6 Mb and Tiscali - its new subsidiary - managed speeds of 3.2 to 3.7 Mb per second.
Virgin Media performed best in the testing with an offering of between 8.1 and 8.7 Mb - but this was on it's up to 10Mb packages.
Categories: Switching, Virgin Media
